12 August 2008

Movin' Right Along

My family is about to make an epochal shift from life in an Apartment to life in a House. And, to my cramped and crowded self, it can't happen too soon!

We have spent the last five years in a third story walk-up that, when Hubby and I moved into it, felt nearly cavernous, the essence of opulence for our newlywed selves. Two bedrooms (a vast improvement from the 1BR we had been in before), TWO bathrooms (luxury!), full sized washer and dryer, lots of roomy closets, spacious living room/dining room, a fireplace, and joy-of-all-joys a balcony! THIS was living!

In the five years since, we have added two darling and much-loved children to the household, and with them came all the accoutrement that two small children need. Now that once-huge apartment has somehow become exceedingly tiny. In addition to my concerns over one very stifled and somewhat panicky gypsy spirit (before this five-year stint, the longest I had lived in one place since I've been on my own was 15 months), the walls have been closing in on me, the closets and cabinets are overflowing, and the walkways are dwindling. Despite my vicious purging raids on all things superfluous, our Stuff can no longer be contained in this space.

So we began hunting for a house. Sunshine was remarkably excited about the prospect, although her stipulations for acceptable housing do not exactly reflect mine:

Sunshine: Mama, are we going to the park?Me: No love, today we are going to go look at some houses - we need to find a new house to live in so we can have more space to play! (putting it in terms she can relate to, you know?)Sunshine: Oh. [pause] Can Baby Bear sleep in my room in the new house?Me: Sure! You two will have a room just for Sisters! (marveling at how easy this seems to be.)Sunshine: Okay. [another pause] What color is our new house?Me: I don't know yet. It could be white, or red, or green...Sunshine: I want polka-dots.Me: Polka-dots? (Did I say easy?)Sunshine: Yes. Pink ones. And blue and yellow ones. And maybe green.Me: Polka-dots. (Crap.)Sunshine: Uh-huh.Me: Sweetheart, I don't know if we'll be able to find a house with polka-dots....Sunshine: Wellllll, maaaaybe we can find one. (She says this with her best "mother placating her small child" voice - hmmm, wonder where she learned that.)

And, Heaven help me, maybe she's right, maybe we can. But one way or another, solid or polka-dotted or striped or whatever comes our way, we will in fact be moving into a House. We will breathe deeply in the vast openness and stretch our souls into the near-infinite spaces. And then we will slowly begin the process of filling up every nook and cranny. Again.